Friday, November 9, 2012

Vina – Richfield, MN


I was excited to check out this Vietnamese restaurant neither Trash nor I had been to in Richfield. We had some business to discuss and we met for lunch. It’s a small little place, but it has mirrors on the inside that make it look much larger than it is.

The menu has a severe lack of Vietnamese dishes on it, so I decided to order the Pho. Sadly, they were out of Pho on the day we went, so I got stuck scrambling through the menu for something else. I went with the Hot and Spicy Chicken – sometimes, that’s got a Vietnamese feel at many places, so I thought that would be safe. Trash got the Mock Duck with Fried Potatoes and Onions. Basically, the menu is a standard Chinese restaurant menu, from what I can tell.

There is only one lady working the entire dining room, so you have to maneuver to catch her attention, or she’ll blow past you. She’s perfectly friendly, just overwhelmed, from all appearances.

The food showed up and looked just fine. Trash’s dish was oddly half hot and half cold. The fake meat was steaming and piping hot, but the fried potatoes were not just room temperature, but actually cold, as if they had come out of a refrigerator or cooler. Very weird. The flavor was really quite good though, both the mock duck and the fried potatoes – I was kind of surprised by that,. They gave her plenty of rice to pair with it and she ended up eating most of it (and I helped a little bit).

My hot and spicy chicken was decent. No complaints, other than it could have had more flavor. I was happy the chicken wasn’t fried bits, and the sauce on it was about average. The fried rice was pretty standard, but the egg roll was really quite good. I was glad it came with the lunch special and I got to try it. It had a very nice crisp on the shell without being greasy (feeling or tasting).

Overall, I’d give the place a thumbs down for their Vietnamese selection, especially since they were out of Pho, and give the flavor of the food we did get a simple meh.

Top 5 things about Vina
1. Egg roll
2. Really nice server
3. Flavor of the Mock duck with fried potatoes
4. Have a vegetarian portion of the menu
5. Lunch specials

Bottom 5 things
1. Cold potatoes
2. No Pho
3. Very few Vietnamese dishes on the menu
4. Average food flavor
5. Just one server

www.vinarichfield.com

No comments: